Saturday, 20 July 2013

Learn how to tune your mind for the
attainment of your desires. You need to tune your mind in order to attain
success because human beings behave not in accordance with the truth, but in
accordance with the truth as they perceive it to be.

The way you perceive reality
determines your chances of success. A faulty perception of life is that seeing
is believing. The truth is because you can’t see it does not mean it isn’t
there. The reason we didn’t see opportunities is not because they aren’t there,
it is because we haven’t determined what we are looking for. Rather than wait
to see before believing, we must first set our goals before reality changes.
When you set a goal, your mind – brain functioning together, will work to your
advantage to attain your goal.

For success, set your goal first and
the relevant information will get through when you know and believe what you
want, you start seeing results. Actually believing is seeing. We only pay
attention to what is of value to us. The reason you don’t see opportunities is
that we limit ourselves by the way we think. You must be willing to think out
of the box, be willing to think outside of your limitations.

Another reason we fail to see
opportunities is because we have low self-esteem. When you have good
self-esteem, you think you can handle anything. Sometimes, the information we
need comes through others. If our self-esteem is high, information can come in
the form of a suggestion or even criticism. But if you have poor self-esteem,
you will not be able to accept suggestions or criticism from others. Your
responses will be defensive. The error you make is this; when you accept only
your own opinion, you shut out everything else. Poor self-esteem prevents you from
accepting other people’s opinion.

It isn’t because you are stupid that
you don’t know how to accomplish something. It is because you are conditioned
due to a blockade you’ve formed, not to see. As a businessman, you have a
tendency to lock onto jaded approaches. As you allow your thoughts or habits to
build up in your mind, you act out these beliefs, it becomes self-fulfilling
prophesy.

Arising from this is the sure-enough
principle. Your level of expectation determines the outcome. Once you lock onto
an opinion of how things are going to come about, you go out and create the
situation or gather information to bolster your perceived idea or notion and
bring it to reality, and sure-enough, you get what you expect. This is called
the sure-enough principle. Thus, self-talk and visualization reinforce an
already existing self-image or belief you have about yourself. Your self-image
controls how you perform or your performance reality. So the main reason for
changing your image when you are not performing to your expectation is that
your self-image controls your performance.

However, attitudes help or hinder
your success. What are attitudes? Attitudes are dominant beliefs. The
evaluation of an attitude is always in relation to your goal in life. If you
are an introvert, being an introvert in itself is neutral. But if your goal is
to be a public speaker, your attitude would not support your goal. If you want
to change your attitude, all you need to do is to make new affirmations
regarding your present objective. Visualization is another method of altering
your attitudes. Picture yourself as being a person with the emotional response
required for your success. Visualize yourself seeking out and attaining your
goals, your habits of thoughts are determined by your subconscious, you need to
jettison habits not in conformity with present goals and aspirations.

You move toward what you picture, in
essence, we are teleological; meaning we physically, emotionally and
psychologically create through activity and movement what it is we hold as a
picture in our minds. As long as we hold the picture, we are drawn towards that
picture. We can control our imagery through directed self-talk and
visualization, you must first picture your goal in the mind before you can
attain it through action. Your teleological mechanism knows exactly where you
are in time and space in relationship to the target. Keeping your eyes on the
end result stimulates the creature energy in you, driving you to attract
people, material things, new books, seminars to create the picture in your
mind. But forcing change creates failure. So the only way is through self-talk
and visualization.

You can only rely on promises to
yourself to become a winner. This is simply a matter of keeping your mind off
what you don’t want and keeping your mind always on what you want. Don’t spend
your time imaging the accursed, rather go towards your goal, never go by past
track records; every moment is a new beginning. Successful people look at what
they want and move towards it. Ultimately, what you want is to feel good.

When you develop a philosophy of life
and do your best to be true to that philosophy all soon come into place, the
questions of what you want are easily answered. Then you will draw the people
you want to yourself. You will know what you want to do in your work, in your
relationships, because everything and everyone necessary to support your
philosophy will come into your life. Also, you must be willing to change your
philosophy if it does not support you in being all you can be.

When you consciously use self-talk
and imagery, you deliberately throw your system out of order, thus, you must
drive yourself strongly, perhaps obsessively into whatever you are affirming,
and imaging. For success, you must use the concepts in every area of your life,
you must be obsessive about everything concerning your success. That means you
do not steal from one part of your life to fulfill another. Start by knowing
where you want to go and begin to talk to yourself about it. What you tell
yourself will determine how far you will go and how long it will take you to
get there. Self-talk combined with imagery are the most powerful tools you can
use to go from where you are right now to where you want to be. This is how you can fine-tune your mind for
success.

Your subconscious, the power house
of your intuition will carry you to any level of success you desire. But this
cannot happen on its own, by chance, you have to build it, so in order to get
your life to work, and take greater advantage of this resource, you have to
build a channel for your creativity to flow through.

To enlarge this channel, you have to expand your consciousness. This
involves expanding your ideas and beliefs by casting aside old beliefs. If you
believe that the solution to your problems is outside of you, you will always
look outside for solutions in order to find answers to your needs.

However, you should begin to look
inside of yourself for the panacea to your problems. The outer world is a
reproduction of your inner world, which is why you should look at yourself in a
new way. No amount of will power or motivation will solve your problems if you
look outside of yourself for answers, your frightened mind can only attract
frightening experiences. This principle is by which animals are attracted to
their own kind. Your subconscious will always lead you according to your
beliefs.

All you need do is to want something better than you have right now.
Never settle down into self satisfaction. There is no growth without
discontent, while you may enjoy present situation, it is important that you
grow from where you are!

If your life does not work the way you want it, it is because you have
accepted false beliefs and values that keep you from being all that you can be.
When you are stuck like that, then you should review your life and change your
false values.

Waiting is a trap, why are you waiting to be happy, to be alive, to be
wealthy? There will always be a reason to wait. But in life, you can only have
two things, they are reasons or results. But reasons don’t count, results are
what matters in life.

The way forward is to heal yourself, you are responsible for whatever
happens to you. Through the law of attraction, you attract everything that
happens to you. This is a hard pill to swallow but it is the only way you can
change. Most often we insist that reality should conform to our illusion. But
the starting point of success is through control. A confused mind works in the
direction of poverty, sickness and lack, while straight minds work for
abundance and success.

Your basic task is to develop high consciousness, such that you can
create the conditions of life you desire.

You can also alter your conditions by challenging your beliefs if even
your ego is threatened. Whenever you want something in your life, you must
always let go of anything standing between you and your goal. In your heart,
you know exactly what you want and if you would listen to your intuition, it
will tell you how to accomplish it. Your mind may sell you out, but your
intuition never will. Your intuition is your connection with Jehovah, the
ultimate power on earth.

Learn to trust your intuition for
no one could control you through it. Your intuition alone can make you what you
want to be. Success is your birthright, you were born to be successful and that
success requires no apology.

The way to gravitate from poverty to riches is to change yourself image.
We literally act out the kind of person that we think we are! Besides no amount
of will power will cause us to think another way. This mental blueprint of our
self image in turn tyrannizes our lives. But sadly, who you are and what you
are is not the same. Your ego may be trying to trick you to believe your false
self image.

To attain greatness, you should neutralize your ego. The way to
neutralize your ego is to love yourself unconditionally. This is possible
because your ego isn’t about loving yourself. And because life is consciousness
anything you assume to be true will become real in the course of time. You will
experience in life, whatever you are deeply convinced is so.

You cannot be wealthy if you resent wealthy people. You cannot be
talented or beautiful if you hate talented and beautiful people. Whatever you
resent is a statement of what you lack.

Remember , whoever you resent is you, because we are all one. The more
you love and supportothers in their
well being, the more you will have everything. As you support others, you
actually support yourself in having whatever you want. Being yourself is the
secret of contentment.

So it is with happiness, all happiness is caused by comparison. You may
feel unhappy when you compare what you have now to that of another person. The
truth about happiness is that you are not what you have, you are not what you
do. When you stop pleasing others by pleasing yourself, you will maintain a
state of contentment and happiness. Where there is no comparison, unhappiness
is impossible. Happiness exists when the mind isn’t removed from itself. But
your environment hinders your happiness. Beware of where you live. It could be
the source of your limitations. Imitate Jesus. When the Christ found his
Nazarene brethren hostile, he relocated to Capanaum. There he found succor and
his ministry prospered.

Our champion today is Robert Boyle. History remembers Boyle as the
scientist who gave his name to Boyle’s law- a natural law that sets out the
connection between pressure and volume in gases. His momentous discovery laid
the basis for countless scientific developments that followed. But Robert Boyle
was more than an able man of science. He was also a man of great faith in God
and His inspired words, the Bible.

Boyle was born into a wealthy family at Lismore Castle, in Ireland in
1627. That time was a period termed by historians as the age of reason. That
time was when thinkers tried to free men from the fanaticism that had enslaved
the human race for centuries. Boyle’s desire to learn was matched only by his
intense desire to share his learning with others. Thus, he became a prolific
writer. His writing influenced such great minds as Sir Isaac Newton. In 1660,
Boyle was one of the founders of the Royal Society. This is a scientific
institution that still exists in England.

Boyle has been described as the
father of chemistry. As opposed to the Alchemists of his day who kept their
findings secret, Boyle openly published all the details of his work. Further,
instead of accepting, long-held myths he championed the use of experiments to
establish the facts. This way he established that matter is composed of
corpuscles, that combined in different ways to form substances.

Boyle summed up his way in his book. The Skeptical Chymist. There he
urged scientists to avoid being dogmatic. He said scientists should distinguish
fact from opinion, differentiate what they knew to be true from things they
thought to be true. Before he died in December 1691, Boyle with his sister
Katherine, moved to London where he devoted himself to the propagation of
Protestantism.

Friday, 12 July 2013

Jesus
once told a story which ought to be the primer on prayer (Luke 11:1-13).

That
story tells us that God wants us to pray, to ask Him freely and boldly for
whatever we need.

Ironically,
that original intention has been seriously distorted. The principal reason for
this is one word: importunity (Luke 11:8). Persistence is the unfortunate
translation of importunity in most modern versions.

What Jesus is saying is:

“Your
first barrier isn’t God. It is your own hesitance to ask freely. You need to
learn the boldness that isn’t afraid to ask --- whatever the need or
circumstance”.

Another
point of confusion lies in misunderstanding the word “ask”. Its tense in Greek
conveys the idea of continual asking. But the continuality Jesus wants is in
ceaseless petitioning. In other words, you need never hesitate to ask for
something just because you asked for something else earlier. Any hint that
heaven gets too busy with earlier requests to have either time or supply for
the next is pure folly. Here is the message of the Jesus parable.

One,
you have a friend in the heavenly Father. He is on your side and available any
time and in every circumstance. Two, boldness is your privilege. Your
assignment is to ask. God’s commitment is to give as much as you need.

Jesus
strikes the death blow to hesitancy when he said ask. Ask with unabashed
forwardness; ask with shameless boldness! Christ really teaches, “Your friend,
my father, will rise to the occasion, and see that everything you need is
provided.”

But
there are many hindrances to prayer. Aside our adversary, Satan’s workings
against us, there is the self- inflicted turmoil we heap upon ourselves by
ignorance, of rebellion against spiritual laws. The law of sowing and reaping
(Galatians 6:7-8) is as certain as the law of gravity. Much of that for which
mankind indicts God as unkind is the simple harvest of man’s own folly.

The
whole purpose of God’s commands is to warn against the destructive power of sin,
not to badger man with a land-locking set of rules which would take the wind
out of full-sail living. “For this the love of God, that we keep his
commandments are not grievous”( 1 John 5:3). Carnal violation of Jehovah’s
order produces confusion and failure. Sin and Satan produce disorder and
destruction. Allah shows the way to surmount our own propensity for failure and
heart break. God shows us the way to overcome the slings of satanic fury bent
on destruction.

Indeed, prayer is the determining factor in our
success. But the problem is that too few of us want to accept the fact that if
we don’t pray, God won’t do anything.

This
is much more than a problem. It breeds the controversy, indeed a long-standing debate
between human responsibility and divine sovereignty. To some, an emphasis on
the responsibility of man suggests that eternal issues are sacrificed on the altar
of man’s imperfection. To others, an emphasis on divine sovereignty suggests a
deterministic universe in which God’s will irresistibly makes everything
happen. Too much of human responsibility produces an erratic world; too much of
divine sovereignty a fatalistic one. Knowledge is the only armour against fate.

But
man is disinclined to accept responsibility for his life on earth. However, God
did has given man charge of this planet. And the current disorder in the world
is man’s making. The only people who can change our bleak circumstances and
reverse, the tide of evil wherever it rises are those who pray to God. But
sloth is the mark of the sons of Adam. We have been made poor by ignorance,
timidity and laziness. If we will only pray, our problems would be solved.
Christ solemnly charged us; “it’s up to you. If heaven’s will and power are to
be worked on earth, you have to ask for it”. He removed the guesswork from
man’s questioning: man is responsible. If hell or failing flesh wins, it is
because no one withstands the fire or the foolishness. Jesus instructs you to
“Ask…… seek…. Knock.” The combination is intended to unlock the shackles of
helplessness. Ask-call on Yahweh to work in the midst of those circumstances
where sin or Satan is succeeding. Seek-pursue the path God opens (i.e. pray)
knowing God will lead you to discover the underlying structure of the problem.
Knock – strike the obstacle, like the friend knocking at the door who overcome
the only obstacle between him and provision for his need (Luke 11:5-10); like
the widow who stayed at the unjust judge’s door, striking the object that was
shut up against justice being served (Luke 18:1-8); like the apostle who
directed the church to pray in order that hindrances to effective ministry be
crumbled (Colossians 4:2, 3).

John
Wesley put it clearly: “God will do nothing in earth except in other believing
prayer.” Thus God holds to his original preposition: “man is in charge on
earth. If hell is let loose, it is man’s duty to call upon me for the remedy.
If he doesn’t call – if prayer isn’t uttered, I have bound myself not to be
involved. If prayer is extended, I have bound myself to conquer everything that
would destroy or diminish my beloved creature- man. There it is, prayer can
change anything. The impossible doesn’t exist with prayer. To God belongs
power, our duty is to pray. Without God, we cannot
triumph or overcome our problems. But without asking, God will not do anything.

“The Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save neither his ear
heavy, that it cannot hear,” (Isaiah 59:1). That ought to settle the case for
necessity for prayer. If the question arises, “is it okay to pray?” let the
answer be settled, “Yes it is okay.” You can be sure God won’t mock or
criticize you for asking anything. “If any man lacks wisdom let him ask of God,
who gives to all men liberally, and doesn’t rebuke you for asking.” (James 1:5).

However, there is a battery of scriptures that make clear that some
prayers will not be answered (James 4:3). Presumptuous attitudes in prayer will
not be honoured (Luke 9.51). Prayer offered by a disobedient person or sinner
will not be heard by God (Psalm 66:18). Intolerance and unforgiveness towards
others blocks the provision of even our most basic needs (Mathew 6:11, 12). But
if you want to win with prayer, you must be honest with God. You don’t have to
be all-knowing. You don’t need any level of holiness. But you must be open. “If
you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it
shall be done unto you,” (John 15:7). “For the lord God is a sun and shield:
the lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will be withheld from them
that walk uprightly,” (psalms 84:1).

Prayer is the only
instrument that can function in the fight against evil. But even when we
actually move into prayer, we seldom hit the mark. Often, we pray desperately
about the adversary’s workings than joining together to declare the destruction
of the enemy. So, for success, we must abandon a fatalistic attitude to life.
We must commit ourselves to intercessory prayer for triumph, because nothing
happens for the blessing of mankind without a struggle. So, we need to pray as
a team for safety. God deals in words. We must verbalize our needs for His
answer. Prayers prevail by over- throwing evil; the keys to successful prayer
are humidity and patience. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,
that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he
careth for you.” (Peter 5: 6, 7).

Monday, 1 July 2013

Jesus once told a story which ought
to be the primer on prayer, Luke 11:1-13, that story tells us that God wants us
to pray, to ask Him freely and boldly for whatever we need.

Ironically, that original intention
has been seriously distorted. The principal reason for this is one word;
importunity, Luke 11:8, persistence is the unfortunate translation of
importunity in most modern versions.

What Jesus is saying is:

“Your first barrier isn’t God. It is
your own hesitance to ask freely. You need to learn the boldness that isn’t
afraid to ask- whatever the need or circumstance”.

Another point of confusion lies in
misunderstanding the word “ask”. Its tense in Greek conveys the idea of
continual asking. But the continuality Jesus wants is in ceaseless petitioning.
In other words, you need never hesitate to ask for something just because you
asked for something else earlier. Any hint that heaven gets too busy with
earlier requests to have either time or supply for the next is pure folly. Here
is the message of the Jesus parable.

One, you have a friend in the
heavenly Father. He is on your side and available any time and in every
circumstance. Two, boldness is your privilege. Your assignment is to ask. God’s
commitment is to give as much as you need.

Jesus strikes the death blow to
hesitancy when he said: ask, Ask with unabashed forwardness: ask with shameless
boldness! Christ really teaches, “Your friend, my father, will rise to the
occasion, and see that everything you need is provided”. Father, forgive me for
ignorantly doubting your willingness or your readiness to help me, as my
friend. Please help me, as my friend; please release me from the trap which
fear has snapped on my mind, pinching my faith down to the size of my limited imagings.
Thank you for receiving me as I begin my lessons in prayer with this one. I
need not ever be ashamed to ask you anything Amen.

But there are many hindrances to
prayer, aside of our adversary Satan’s workings against us, there is the self
inflicted turmoil we heap upon ourselves by ignorance, of rebellion against
spiritual laws. The law of sowing and reaping (Galatians 6:7-8) is as certain
as the law of gravity. Much of that, for which mankind indicts God, as unkind, is
the simple harvest of man’s own folly. The whole purpose of God’s commands is
to warn against the destructive power of sin, not to badger man with a land
locking set of rules which would take the wind out of full sail living. “For
this the love of God, that we keep his commandments are not grievous”, 1 John
5:3. Carnal violation of Jehovah’s order produces confusion and failure. Sin
and Satan produce disorder and destruction. Allah shows the way to surmount our
own propensity for failure and heart break. God shows us the way to overcome
the slings of satanic fury bent on destruction.

Indeed, prayer is the determining
factor in our success. But the problem is that too few of us want to accept the
fact that if we don’t pray God won’t do anything.

This is much more than a problem. It
breeds the controversy, indeed a long term debate between human responsibility
and divine sovereignty. To some, an emphasis on the responsibility of man
suggests that eternal issues are sacrificed on the altar of man’s imperfection.
To others, an emphasis on divine sovereignty suggests a deterministic universe
in which God’s will irresistibly make everything happen. Too much of human
responsibility produces an erratic world; too much of divine sovereignty a
fatalistic one. Knowledge is the only armor against fate.

But man is disinclined to accept
responsibility for his life on earth. However, God did give man charge of this
planet. And the current disorder in the world is man’s making. The only people
who can change our bleak circumstances and reverse, the tide of evil wherever
it rises are those who pray to God. But sloth is the mark of the sons of Adam.
We have been made poor by ignorance, timidity and laziness. If we will only
pray, our problems would be solved. Christ solemnly charged us; “it’s up to
you. If heaven’s will and power are to be worked on earth, you have to ask for
it”. He removed the guesswork from man’s questioning: man is responsible. If
hell or failing flesh win, it is because no one withstands the fire or the
foolishness. Jesus instructs you to “Ask…… seek…. Knock. The combination is
intended to unlock the shackles of helplessness. Ask-call on Yahweh to work in
the midst of those circumstances where sin or Satan is succeeding. Seek-pursue
the path God opens (i.e. pray) knowing God will lead you to discover the
underlying structure of the problem. Knock – strike the obstacle, like the
friend knocking at the door who overcome the only obstacle between him and
provision for his need, Luke 11:5-10; like the widow who stayed at the unjust
judge’ door, striking the object that was shut up against justice being served,
Luke 18:1-8; like the apostle who directed the church to pray in order that
hindrances to effective ministry be
crumbled (Colossians 4:2, 3), John Wesley put it clearly: “God will do nothing
in earth except in other believing prayer.” Thus God holds to his original
preposition: “man is in charge on earth. If hell is let loose, it is man’s duty
to call upon me for the remedy. If he doesn’t call – if prayer isn’t uttered, I
have bound myself not to be involved. If prayer is extended, I have bound
myself to conquer everything that would destroy or diminish my beloved
creature- man. There it is, prayer can change anything. The impossible doesn’t
exist with prayer. To God belongs power, our duty is to pray. Without God we
cannot triumph or overcome our problems. But without asking, God will not do
anything.

“The Lord’s hand is not shortened,
that it cannot save neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear,” Isaiah 59:1,
that ought to settle the case for necessity for prayer. If the question arises,
“is it okay to pray?” let the answer be settled, yes it is okay.” You can be
sure God won’t mock or criticize you for asking anything. “If any man lacks wisdom
let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, and doesn’t rebuke you for
asking.” James 1:5.

However, there is a battery of
scriptures that make clear that some prayers will not be answered, James 4:3.
Presumptuous attitudes in prayer will not be honoured; Luke 9.51. Prayer offered
by a disobedient person or sinner will not be heard by God, psalm 66:18.
Intolerance and unforgiveness toward others blocks the provision of even our
most basic needs, Mathew 6:11, 12. But if you want to win with prayer, you must
be honest with God. You don’t have to be all knowing. You don’t need any level
of holiness. But you must be open. “If you abide in me and my words abide in
you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you,” John 15:7.
“For the lord God is a sun and shield: the lord will give grace and glory: no
good thing will be withheld from them that walk uprightly,” psalms 84:11.

Prayer is the only instrument that
can function in the fight against evil. But even when we actually move into
prayer, we seldom hit the mark often, we pray desperately about the adversary’s
workings than joining together to declare the destruction of the enemy. So for
success, we must abandon a fatalistic attitude to life. We must commit
ourselves to intercessory prayer for triumph, because nothing happens for the
blessing of mankind without a struggle. So we need to pray as a team for
safety. God deals in words. We must verbalize our needs for His answer. Prayers
prevail by over throwing evil; the keys to successful prayer are humidity and
patience. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt
you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.” Peter
5: 6, 7.

Bayo Ogunmupe

About Me

Bayo Ogunmupe is a veteran Journalist, economist and literary critic. He was born in Osun state, Nigeria. He was educated at the international School, Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria, the University of Ibadan and the University of Geneva, Switzerland, the London School of Economics, UK.
He was Production Editor, Nigerian Tribune, Ibadan, and Senior Sub-Editor at Daily Times Newspaper in Lagos. Ogunmupe was Associate Editor of Newswatch Magazine, He was a recipient of the Nigerian Media Merit Awards in 1993 and the Ladi Lawal Journalist of the year, 2010. He is columnist for the Guardian newspaper since 1993. He is the author of Nigerian Politics in the Age of Yar'Adua. Chief Ogunmupe is available for lectures, seminars and leadership workshops or conferences in any part of the world. He can be reached at ogunmupeb@yahoo.com